Fifth-Grader Handcuffed, Expelled -- for Drawing Guns

   The old Western cliché -- "Draw, pardner!" -- took on an ominous meaning in a Florida elementary classroom.

   A fifth-grader was taken from school in handcuffs after classmates told a teacher he had made drawings of weapons.

   Yes, drawings.

   The 11-year-old attended Oldsmar Elementary School in the St. Petersburg, Florida area. The incident occurred Wednesday, May 9, 2001.

   The child was not charged with a crime, but he received some disciplinary action the principal refused to discuss. School officials say he probably won't return to school for the rest of the year, and probably will be sent to another school next
year.

   "There were some drawings that were confiscated by the teacher," principal David Schmitt said. "The children were in
no danger at all. It involved no real weapons."

   Noted the St. Petersburg Times: "The boy was handcuffed by campus police for his safety and not because the student was violent or out of control, said school district spokesman Ron Stone."

   "That's normal procedure in a situation like this," Stone said. "The primary concern was to make sure we get
appropriate services for the child."

   The boy's treatment could have been worse. Nancy Zambito, a director of school operations for the school district, noted that, depending on the severity of a particular threat, a student could be arrested or even hospitalized. She pointed out that Florida's Baker Act allows for the involuntary commitment of people who threaten or attempt to hurt others.

   Principal Schmitt commended the boy's classmates who turned him in after seeing his drawings, praising them for doing
what, he claims, was the right thing. Schmitt, however, refused to discuss the details of why the boy's drawings were deserving of such severe punishment.

   "All I can tell you is it was a threat...against students," he said. "Nobody in particular, but students in general.

   "We just need to get it through kids' heads that there are certain things you don't say and there are certain things you don't draw," Schmitt said.

   (Source: St. Petersburg Times, May 11, 2001 /
   http://www.sptimes.com/News/051101/TampaBay/Student_removed_from_.shtml